Lest Darkness Fall
by Chrystoph
Summary: An unlikely group of adventurers is forced into confronting the Devourer. Adult themes, including violence, romance and soft sexuality
1. Chapter 1

Zephen crouched in the ruins of the building, the camouflage systems of his armor engaged. Outside, in the dust clouds, the hulk of armor and weapons that had been his tank sat in the street.

The warp mine had opened a pinpoint wormhole under the bow, slinging the hover tank around in a complete circle, slamming it through the pre-Cataclysm buildings. In the process, the mine had devoured part of the forward grav nacelles, destroying them and grounding the tank.

Once he had recovered from the tossing around, Zephen had bailed out of the pilot's escape hatch. With a quick check, he had gotten his emergency kit, but the hover bike had been destroyed at the same time as the forward nacelles.

It was galling to realize that he had fallen, not to an ambush, but to an automated security device. His tail lashed back and forth once at the thought, then he settled back to stillness. Several minutes later, a trio of forms advanced down the street using a leap frog formation. Moving from cover to cover, it took Zephen some time to identify them; Ratlings, humanoid rats and all that implied.

The three moved into the area, making a cursory examination of the buildings. They almost immediately began discussing what they could salvage of the tank. Zephen's grip on the Particle Beam Rifle tightened, but he waited until the lot turned away from him. As soon as that happened, the PBR came up and punched out a three shot burst. The thunder of the relativistic shots completely overwhelmed the sound of the Ratling's head exploding. Rolling the rifle to the right slightly, Zephen's second target died from a longer burst through the chest.

The last Ratling, suddenly knowing it was outclassed, dropped the laser rifle he had been carrying and put his hands on his head in a gesture of surrender. Zephen's helmet speaker activated.

"GiVe mmme onne rrreassonn nnnoT To Killll You nnnow, rrraT!"

Before his prisoner could respond, several things happened, more or less at the same time.

Vehicle caliber lasers streamed down from overhead, ripping the hapless Ratling to shreds.

The tank announced, in the pleasant human contralto of the computer's voice, "Hostile aircraft detected. Crusader is initiating anti-air operations."

With that simple statement, the secondary missile turret belched a dozen short range missiles. The twin barrels of the cupola gun went to rapid fire, slewing around in circles as the battle computer tracked a target Zephen couldn't see.

A moment later, heavy particle beams ripped into the damaged forward section of the tank. Smoke blossomed forth from gashes in the armor, but the tank continued firing at the unseen flyer. Another salvo of SRMs launched forth into the sky, followed by a flight of medium range missiles from the vertical launcher.

There were no further responses from the tank's opponent, so Zephen began to start forward. Three steps forward, the tank announced, "Incoming!"

The cupola gun again began firing, but Zephen didn't stay to watch. Turning and running toward the back of the building, he never saw the foundering aircraft smash into the tank. The resulting explosion caused him to lift into the air, throwing him forward. His landing would not have impressed a flight instructor.


	2. Chapter 2

I stood in the middle of the remains of my old apartment in the ruins of Shanghai. The place had not weathered the last three hundred years well. With a shake of my head, I wondered why I had bothered to come back.

With a sigh, I felt the amulet at my neck. Family had brought me back, all that I had left of it. My sword murmured soft approval into my mind. Yes….

With a start, I realized that I could hear a mob outside. Going to the bedroom window, I saw a crowd of Oni demons chasing one of their own through the streets. The big ram horned fellow running from the crowd must have been at least three meters tall.

At the intersection, he must have decided to make a stand. He whirled, drawing the biggest katana I had ever seen. That he was serious, I had no doubt, nor, after a moment, did the little fellow that tried to stick a knife into him from behind.

Palming the small one's head like a basketball, the brute threw him at a building half a block away. I grunted, clearly hearing the neck snap even from that distance. Unfortunately, some of the Oni heard that soft sound and looked up my way.

The Oni are physical demons, but a man shaped shadow is not one of their forms. It isn't actually mine, either, but that is what my fighting togs look like. The ones near the edge of the mob stopped being interested in the lynching and started looking for a way into the apartment building.

The big fellow, seeing his opponents momentarily distracted, looked my way as well. With a prodigious leap, he came flying toward the window. I stepped back, drawing my sword to better prepare for combat, but, after scrabbling for purchase for a moment, he immediately turned to the window. The katana skewered something that tried to follow him in.

Seeing that he had the window covered for the moment, I ran into the kitchen and hefted the refrigerator. Moving the bulky thing through the apartment, I got it into the bedroom, but only by smashing through part of the doorway. When the Oni heard me, he looked over his shoulder then helped me to lodge the box into the window.

About that time, someone smashed through the old security door. We ran together out into the living area, just in time to find three of the mob coming in. The first fell to a flame bolt from my ally of the moment as I was drawing the sword I had sheathed to move the fridge.

Stepping forward, I executed a roundhouse kick, hurling my target to the floor. I allowed the kick to actually spin me around, following through with a sword stroke that decapitated the third demon. As the second one picked himself up, he was cut in half by an overhand slash from his would be victim.

Looking around quickly, I realized that we were alone for the moment. I bowed quickly, saying, "I am Ono Ryu, called Moonshadow."

Returning the bow, the Oni, with the voice of a dark God, said, "I am called Ryuken."

I smiled to myself at the coincidence of our names. Just as he finished, we both heard more demons coming up the stairs.

Turning back to him, I looked up. "How do you feel about teleportation?"

He nodded, and I stepped in, telling him to put one hand on my shoulder. Dark fog began to flow from my sword, pooling on the floor and climbing up our legs. Just at the critical moment, though, something hit me in the back of the head, disrupting my concentration.

In an implosion of blackness, we disappeared.


	3. Chapter 3

Zephen awoke slowly, his vision blurred and various aches across his body. His regenerative abilities were putting the damage to rights, but hitting the wall had still not been a pleasant experience.

After lying still for several moments and listening to his surroundings, Zephen got up, looking for his attacker. When he spotted the remains of the tank and the plane, he realized that the opponent he was looking for hadn't survived.

There was a jagged opening in the small aircraft that revealed seared flesh. Given the size of the craft, it must have been the body of a cyborg. No humanoid Zephen knew of would fit into something that small.

Advancing cautiously, he scanned the area, rifle swinging back and forth for potential targets. Seeing nothing immediately threatening, Zephen moved closer to the ruined vehicles.

The tank was obviously so much scrap at this point, although the computer was still reporting to his helmet with what data it could.

As he got closer to the plane, Zephen started noting details. The wings were variable geometry, swinging forward and aft for better control at different speeds. There were auto-lasers mounted in fixed positions for dog-fighting at the nose of the small ship. Particle beams on swivels allowed for heavier attacks.

The most startling thing, though, was the fact that the exposed flesh, held in an egg-like compartment, seemed to be all there was of the pilot. It looked like some sort of slug.

Zephen probed at the thing with his healer's senses, then jerked back in surprise and disgust. The… body… in the craft had more or less human DNA!

With a grunt, Zephen went back to examining the site, but there was nothing else to be had except for a couple of laser rifles. Zephen left them alone, not having any space to carry so many guns.

Topping off the power in his survival pack and his rifle from the tank's still functioning power plant only took a couple of minutes. Then, Zephen made a final goodbye to the tank.

An hour later, while his grav boots moved him steadily north on the remains of Highway 40, a new clearing appeared in the ruins of Baltimore as the tank's fusion power plant touched the Earth, if only for a moment, with a miniature sun.


	4. Chapter 4

My center came back to me a moment later. With my concentration came awareness of our location. We stood in a land comprised entirely of darkness. The lands, the sky, even the air around us were all without color, only varying depths of black.

I knew of this dimension only peripherally. The sword and I passed through it whenever we teleported. Normally, though, I only saw a brief snatch of it before we were gone again. I was in the domain of the demigod whose essence was contained in my weapon, Darkmoon.

The Oni's grip on my shoulder tightened, and he looked down at me. "What is this place, human?"

His attitude and the tone of his voice told me that he was half convinced I had betrayed him.

An edge of my awareness noted that my fighting gear had been reabsorbed by the sword, leaving me in the traditional clothing of a ninja.

I was staring almost desperately at Ryuken, trying not to look at the area around me. I could feel the malevolence of the place trying to gain my attention. The Oni seemed to be completely unaffected by the place's nature, but I could see him looking around with guarded interest. Unexpectedly, he pointed behind me.

With our recent combat still in my mind, I turned, freezing in horror. In the middle distance, I could see my family holding. The warlord's forces were already at the gates. My brothers and sister, my parents and all of my other relatives were cut down mercilessly in the slaughter. The betrayal had been sudden and complete.

I had survived the whole thing by being away when it happened. Knowing what was coming, I still couldn't turn away. The lone figure slipped into the compound, all of his skills at stealth in use, but the warlord had left after looting the place.

Tears streamed down my face, knowing what the scene was about to reveal. As the view changed to the inside of the last place I had ever called home, I watched my younger self find my grandfather. He lay dying in the family hall.

Thankfully, the illusion did not include sound. It might have broken me to hear the old man gasping out his last breaths to tell me of the weapons to avenge my House. The young man I had been had gone to get Darkmoon and the Immortality Elixir, not realizing that his grandpa would be dead upon his return.

In time with the reenactment in front of me, I slipped to my knees, watching as I clutched the last of my family to my chest. All that I had left now was my Sword, the family Crest about my neck, and the family Honor. It didn't matter a bit that the events played out in front of me were over six hundred years in the past. The details displayed made it seem as if it had just happened.


	5. Chapter 5

Zephen had spent the morning in the easy stride of his grav boots, making a steady forty four kilometers an hour. He was, perhaps, two kilometers out from the village that had been his planned next destination when the armor's sensors picked up an explosion.

The helmet computer identified the location as the clearing the village was supposed to reside in, and gave an 87 probability that the weapon used was a plasma based infantry weapon.

Stepping up his pace, Zephen covered a kilo and a half at a powered run. Fortune favored him in a small way, in that the clearing was actually a shallow valley. Engaging the camoflage of his armor, he took up a position behind a small outcropping of rock while the armor's sensors reported weapons fire.

Scanning with a small fibre optic camera, he discovered that the village had a bunker with several weapons firing from it, including some sort of rocket launcher. The invaders consisted of five large robots and some sort of armored walker.

In the middle of the firefight, but on the opposite side of another rock outcropping from the attackers, Zephen could make out two huddling humans. The fibre optic had no telescopic abilities, so it was impossible to determine more at this distance. Reconnasaince complete, he stowed the little coil away.

After a brief moment of thought, Zephen flipped the selector on his rifle down to GL and turned off the laser sight. He had no doubt that the machinery out there would sense a targeting laser, and his only hope was in surprise.

Taking a deep breath, he leaned out, and squeezed the trigger, a rapid thumping in the rifle indicating that it was autofiring its three grenades.

In spite of the quickness with which he attacked, Zephen almost didn't get back into cover quickly enough. Two of the robots turned, sensing the incoming attack, and opened fire on his position. Then, the grenades hit. They weren't aimed at his opponents, but rather at the group at large. Zephen had little doubt that the explosives would have killed one of the robots if he had hit it with all three, but he didn't have enough of them to do the job on all of them, nor the time.

His charges hit the ground in the midst of their formation, throwing the metallic menaces off their collective feet. Incredibly, one of the two that was shooting managed to land on upright.

As they fell to the ground, the rocket launcher took advantage, getting off several shots and taking out three of the 'bots. The walker, outside the effects of the blast, leveled a heavy weapon at the bunker, nailing the position where the rocket launcher was with a plasma beam. The robots turned back to assaulting the village, assuming that Zephen had been taken care of.

At that point, it became obvious that they had been toying with the humans earlier, as their fire became much more accurate. The remaining villagers fled the bunker just before something inside of it exploded.

Zephen used this as a distraction, flipping his rifle back to the PBR setting, and making long, scathing bursts at the remaining robots. One exploded under the hail of fire, while the other simply crumpled to the ground.

Unfortunately, as it fell, it landed facing the humans sheltering on the battlefield. One of them, a teenaged girl, startled and scared, broke from cover. As she fled for the supposed safety of the village, the walker turned toward her. The second person, a slightly older boy, saw it, and leapt forward, pushing her out of the way just in time to catch the spattering of lasers from the brute's fire. His body offered so little resistance that the beams punched right through, tearing up long furroughs in the earth behind him. The near miss burned the girl, causing her to fall to the ground, screaming.

At that moment, several rockets streaked from the village itself, blowing the armored behemoth into shards and fragments.

Zephen took a moment to reload. After that, he safed the rifle and slung it onto his back. He also unsnapped his pistol holster, making the heavy Ion blaster ready to draw. He turned off the armor's stealth systems, stepping out into the open with his hands out and away from his body. The villagers, still jumpy from the recent fighting, pointed weapons in his direction, although, with the exception of one of the rockets, not directly at him.

As he got close to the girl, no, he noted to himself, young woman, his psi senses told him that she was in a lot of pain, but no immediate danger. He paused, lifting her up into his arms. Those same life sensing abilities told him that the man on the ground was beyond healing.

His actions seemed to relieve some of the tension in the group as he was approaching. Being careful, he set the human onto the ground. Once she was laid out, he set a hand on her forehead and concentrated. Energy flowed from Zephen into her body, causing her injuries to mend in accordance with what her DNA said should be their proper form. After a couple of moments, she ceased the moaning she had been making even in unconsciousness, and settled into slumber.

Zephen stood, looking over the crowd. A man in his middle years stepped forward, looking over the shortish warrior standing in front of him. The full body armor hid most of the details, although the tail gently swinging back and forth and the digitigrade legs were hard to miss. The helmet painted and sculpted in the form of a snarling tiger wasn't encouraging, either.

"Ah preciate your hep, Mistah. Right kind. Ah'm wonderin if yah could take off tha helmet, though. It were makin us a bit nevous."

Slowly, pulling the helmet up and forward, Zephen revealed that it was a portrait of himself. He was, of course, careful not to snarl.


	6. Chapter 6

As I knelt, lost in my grief, I felt magic at work. It was sufficient to snap me out of my self-pity, and I looked around. Then, it occurred to me that the amulet I had recovered from the apartment was glowing softly.

After a moment, I saw feet, clothed in the fashion of my family's time, slowly appear in front of me. Looking up, I was shocked to see my grandfather standing in front of me, his luminescent form slightly transparent.

He reached out his hand to me, and I cautiously took it in my own. It felt solid and real, in spite of the fact that I could see through the arm. Helping me to my feet, he smiled at me as he released me.

"Grandson, it is good to see you again." He looked beyond me and bowed to the Oni demon.

"I see that the legends are true. Not all of the Hellborne are evil. I am Ono Pahneé."

The demon bowed equally formally and introduced himself. I was standing there in some shock, bewildered as a ghost and a supernatural being exchanged pleasantries.

Looking back at me, Grandpa smiled. "Ryu, do not let this place overwhelm you. You have maintained the family honor, and it brings me great joy that you have retrieved the amulet. I have waited for you for almost three hundred years.

You do us no disservice in your grief, but we are your past. Remember us well, and live your life. Oh, and ignore the small magics between Darkmoon and the amulet. We speak sometimes.

Grant your Grandfather one last request, and bid Darkmoon to take you where you are needed.

Farewell, my boy. May your honor shine, and all your battles end well!"

With that, he was gone. I stood, shock and duty warring in my mind, then turned to consult the Oni.

"Will this path work for you?"

"What else is there, Ono Ryu? I committed to your journey when I accepted your help. Let us leave this place. It is tiresome."

Placing his hand on my shoulder, he nodded. I hesitated for a moment. I had never given the sword a request such as this. Nodding to myself, I put my faith in my ancestors, and we disappeared.


End file.
